Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors
by FalselyTrue
Summary: CPCoulter's Daltonverse. The times Dalton Boys  and their counterparts  had issues with the concept of fairytales.
1. White Horse Reed

**Title: Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors**

**Summary: The times the Dalton Boys (and their counterparts) had issues with the concepts of fairytales.**

**A/N: The first six were on tumblr forever, and once I wrote the next seven, I figured what the hell and decided to throw them on ff. Every single one of them is based on Taylor Swift, so you can defenitely tell my Taylor Swift Ban isn't exactly working out.**

**Anyway, I don't own Taylor Swift or anything mentioned, not even the characters, 'cos I don't even have OCs in these. Enjoy!**

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><p>White Horse-Reed<p>

_"…I was naive, got lost in your eyes__ and never really had a chance…"_

Reed put too much stock in fairytales. He hadn't ever realized that there was a possibility of no happy ending. He had always assumed he'd be the prince in a fairytale for a beautiful girl forever and always.

It was just easy to believe that everything would work out right, just like it was easy to believe that he just hadn't met the right girl yet. It wasn't anything he ever really paid attention to.

And then the curly haired tornado called Shane had ripped his way into his world, turning everything upside down. Maybe he wouldn't mind being the princess in this fairytale, the one who was swept off his feet, the one who was given the happy ending.

He should have known.

_Micah_. He rolled the name around in his mouth with only a hint of bitterness. It was a good name, a sturdy name (it was a derivative of Michael, which meant "who resembles God?"and was that stalkerish that he'd googled his crush's boyfriend's name to find the meaning? He kinda guessed it was. But still, "Who resembles God" was a lot better than "red", which is what Reed meant.) It was a strong, calm, sturdy name, and it made sense that someone like Micah would have that kind of name—someone who was a savior to Shane in the darkest of times. (okay, he_still_ hadn't been told that story, but from what little he'd figured out from Kurt and Blaine was that Micah had done something and Shane had done something but then it hadn't worked out? It was incredibly confusing, since no one wanted to give him a straight answer.)

But Micah seemed to be someone sturdy, steady and calm. Someone who Shane Anderson could fall in love with.

Reed had no idea what to think anymore. He knew he wasn't a prince or princess, but he knew he'd always wish for forever and a white horse. But part of him insisted that forever and a white horse was a bad idea, that anyone foolish enough to believe in fairytales was just going to get their heart broken.

But maybe this was all a misunderstanding. Maybe Shane was the princess and Micah the evil dragon. Maybe Reed would have to be the white knight and save Shane. But then again…Micah seemed too nice to be evil, and he was too skinny to be an evil dragon. Maybe he was an evil wizard, because…well, he didn't seem like a witch either. Besides, witches stole _babies_, not full-grown princes/esses.

Or maybe this wasn't a fairytale at all, and it wouldn't work out at all.

But a boy could dream, couldn't he?

Reed fell asleep, dreaming of a curly-haired dancer.

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><p><strong>R&amp;R?<strong>


	2. Invisible Julian

**Title: Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors**

**Summary: The times the Dalton Boys (and their counterparts) had issues with the concepts of fairytales.**

**A/N: The first six were on tumblr forever, and once I wrote the next seven, I figured what the hell and decided to throw them on ff. Every single one of them is based on Taylor Swift, so you can defenitely tell my Taylor Swift Ban isn't exactly working out.**

**Anyway, I don't own Taylor Swift or anything mentioned, not even the characters, 'cos I don't even have OCs in these. Enjoy!**

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><p>JULIAN (Invisible)—448 words<p>

_"…He's never gonna see the light, no matter what you do…"_

Julian Larson had never believed in fairytales. At least, that's what he told himself—that a fairytale was just a lie told to make small children happy.

But then again, he was an actor, and it was his job to play make-believe every day. To put on a smile and become someone-who-didn't-exist's white knight in a story that wasn't his own. And maybe that's why he hated fairytales—because he somehow felt that he'd never get his happily-ever-after since he'd already stolen a dozen of them in every story he'd ever faked for the silver screen.

And maybe part of it was the whole Logan-thing. If he really was going to get a happy ending and a fairytale, Logan would've noticed his stupid crush and there would already have been a happy ending. But since his life obviously _wasn't_ a fairytale, he was forced to watch Logan fall for the wrong people, all the while wishing Logan would notice him, realize that Julian wouldn't do anything horrible just because he _could_.

But Logan wasn't going to notice. He was Logan, the most pigheaded, stubborn, ignorant person Julian had ever known.

Leaving this whole mess behind would be the easiest decision he'd ever made. At least, it was supposed to be. After all, if your heart's getting broken, just take it out of the situation. Why get hurt pointlessly? It should be simple.

Except, it wasn't. There was more to a fairytale than a happy ending, and Dalton was the closest thing to a home he could really remember. There was Derek and Logan, who were the only people on the planet to ever tell it to him straight, and despite Logan's obliviousness and Derek's obnoxiousness, they really were the best friends he'd ever had, and then there was the fact that no one batted an eyelash at his presence or lack thereof.

So putting this all in his rearview mirror made the most sense to his head but his heart screamed that he shouldn't leave and this was really too confusing.

Maybe his happy ending was moving on and forgetting everything and realizing he wasn't going to get a happy ending. At least, not in the conventional terms. To be honest, he'd settle for not being in love with Logan anymore. Then, at least, he might be able to fool himself into thinking he had a happy ending. A kind of "fuck you" to his expectations and the world in general.

Julian rolled over and stared at the ceiling.

What should he do?

What _could_ he do?

The question weighed on his mind until he fell asleep.

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><p><strong>R&amp;R?<strong>


	3. Enchanted Shane

**Title: Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors**

**Summary: The times the Dalton Boys (and their counterparts) had issues with the concepts of fairytales.**

**A/N: The first six were on tumblr forever, and once I wrote the next seven, I figured what the hell and decided to throw them on ff. Every single one of them is based on Taylor Swift, so you can defenitely tell my Taylor Swift Ban isn't exactly working out.**

**Anyway, I don't own Taylor Swift or anything mentioned, not even the characters, 'cos I don't even have OCs in these. Enjoy!**

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><p>SHANE (Enchanted)—571 words<p>

_"…I'll spend forever wondering if you knew I was enchanted to meet you…"_

Shane believed in fairytales like he believed in breathing air. There was always a happy ending, there was always a story waiting to be told and smiled about and loved and enjoyed. It never even occurred to him that there couldn't be a happy ending with Micah.

So Micah hadn't turned out to be Shane's happy-ever-after. There was another out there somewhere. There just had to be.

When he'd met Reed, he was sure he'd found a better happy-ever-after. Reed was so different from Micah, and he didn't remind Shane of the brunet bookworm.

Micah had needed saving from himself, protection and a companion. Micah had needed someone to depend on, someone to share the burden and fight by his side. Reed was strong enough to stand on his own, not even needing someone to catch him when he fell because he was resilient enough to stand up and try again.

Shane had been spellbound when he first met the strawberry blonde boy—he _had_ to know who Reed was, how he knew Blaine, if he was gay, if Shane had even a whisper of a chance with him. It had been immediate, knowing he wanted to love Reed. With Micah, it had been forever and a day before he realized it, growing to love him, rather than falling in a split second.

As soon as he'd left that afternoon, Reed had whirled around in Shane's head, a would-he-could-he-is-this-real? until Shane wasn't sure there really _was_ a Reed.

Maybe this was where Shane's fairytale began. Maybe Micah didn't have a place here, because you never knew if Cinderella was courted by a village boy before she went to the Royal Ball, or if there was a merboy Ariel had learned what love and kisses were with. Maybe Micah just set the stage and Reed was going to be the main character.

It would be nice to know if this was the first page of something. _And it was_. It became a possibility of forever because Reed _wasn't_ in love with someone else.

Reed had looked so happy to see him after the accident, and then the Valentine's Day Fair went so well…

Right up until Micah showed up.

Not that seeing Micah was bad, it was great that he was alive and safe and Micah. It was just…now, he had to chose between perfect Reed and beautiful Micah.

On one hand, there was Micah, soft brown hair, rectangular glasses and kind brown eyes, dancing under the stars and day to day protection. It was Micah, steady hands and ace bandages, paperback books and inky black fingers, inside jokes and long stories that no one else would understand. A love shaped by a shared ordeal and a history neither of them could forget or ignore.

But then there was Reed, reddish gold curls, bandaids and bright blue eyes, graceful in unmistakable ways but clumsy as all get out. It was Reed, soft tipped paintbrushes and blank canvasses, paint spattered cheeks and a hall of mirrors, learning love together and trying everything afresh. A blank slate, a new beginning.

Shane groaned and held his head in his hands as he sat on the curb, all things to consider running through his head at lightning pace—Micah's eyes, Reed's curls.

How was he supposed to pick?

Cinderella never had this problem.

**R&R?**


	4. Today Was A Fairytale Merril

**Title: Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors**

**Summary: The times the Dalton Boys (and their counterparts) had issues with the concepts of fairytales.**

**A/N: The first six were on tumblr forever, and once I wrote the next seven, I figured what the hell and decided to throw them on ff. Every single one of them is based on Taylor Swift, so you can defenitely tell my Taylor Swift Ban isn't exactly working out.**

**Anyway, I don't own Taylor Swift or anything mentioned, not even the characters, 'cos I don't even have OCs in these. Enjoy!**

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><p>MERRIL (Today Was A Fairytale)—495<p>

_"Today was a fairytale, you were the prince, I used to be a damsel in distress…"_

Merril had always loved fairytales more than she probably should. Her parents hated that she'd always loved hearing about Cinderella and Belle and Ariel more than Mr. Macho Firefighter, but she'd honestly never seen the point in senseless violence. And The Beast and Ursula and The Evil Stepmother were scarier than any house fire, honestly. She just liked the story of a damsel in distress who got saved by someone who wanted to give them the world.

She didn't necessarily _believe_ in these fairytales, but that didn't mean she didn't _like_ them. Whenever Hanover had movie night and it was her turn to pick, she'd always choose a Disney Classic that had all the guys groaning in horror but by the time the movie was over, three-quarters of Hanover was crammed into the common rooms—more than twice the amount of people that showed up for any other movie night.

Her favorite was Tangled—the strong, determined girl with a frying pan, the adventurous handsome unlikely hero-who-used-to-be-a-thief, the ferocious horse that was more like a dog and, of course, the cute little gecko (because no Disney movie was complete without a pocket-sized pet/friend/companion). And the fact that Flynn Rider looked like an animated version of what Spencer might look like in five or so years had nothing to do with it. Nope. Nothing at all.

It was nice, watching Disney movies, and she'd always tease her boys for watching them with her.

And it was really nice that she'd fallen into a fairytale of her own. It wasn't one that would be told now, but maybe in fifty or a hundred years, when transgender people were more accepted, someone would write a fairytale just like hers, of the girl-born-as-a-boy, whose family cast her out even though she loved them, and the girl was sent to a faraway kingdom, where she fell in love with a handsome boy who didn't care that she used to be a boy. And after some misunderstandings, she realized he loved her back.

He'd saved her, more than once, she realized, while watching a chick flick with Spencer (despite his many moanings and groanings, he loved them as much as she did). He'd been her friend and accepted her as female when she wasn't sure anyone would. He'd been her first crush, her first love, her first kiss. And she'd been convinced that no one could ever love anyone like her.

Her life really was a fairytale, and Spencer was her very own Prince Charming. And at one point, she'd been a damsel in distress, and while she might be sometimes, she was her very own person, too.

She snuggles deeper into Spencer's arms and dozes off sometime between the King of the World moment and the Titanic's sinking, dreaming about her own fractured fairytale and the beautiful boy she got to share it with.

**R&R?**


	5. Long Live Micah

**Title: Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors**

**Summary: The times the Dalton Boys (and their counterparts) had issues with the concepts of fairytales.**

**A/N: The first six were on tumblr forever, and once I wrote the next seven, I figured what the hell and decided to throw them on ff. Every single one of them is based on Taylor Swift, so you can defenitely tell my Taylor Swift Ban isn't exactly working out.**

**Anyway, I don't own Taylor Swift or anything mentioned, not even the characters, 'cos I don't even have OCs in these. Enjoy!**

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><p>MICAH (Long Live)—1348 words<p>

"…long live, all the mountains we moved, I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you…"

Micah was fascinated by fairytales. No more so than Greek or Roman mythology, but he was fascinated by them nonetheless.

He'd started reading them in a fit of boredom one Sunday afternoon, and from there, he'd been curious beyond reasonable levels. There'd been so many questions he couldn't quite answer, so many things that made sense but the dozens that didn't.

Why would someone write a fairytale? Not the cutesy Disney kind, the gruesome original kind, with chopped off toes and cheating princes and children who were forced to sell matches in the gutter. Why would someone create such a tale, and why did people love them so much? Beauty and the Beast didn't exactly relate to people in modern times. By all rights, it should've vanished into the recesses of history by now. Why would three separate civilizations, separated by more than three thousand miles of water, mountains and probably hostile civilizations with no communication between them in any way, shape or form, create three _incredibly similar_versions of the _same story_?

He decided then and there that there must be some kind of basis in truth for every fairytale, and that this truth was present in every love story ever told.

When he broke everything down, there were only a few constants. There was always an evil villain, a moral and at least one potentially deadly weapon. A girl, a boy and some form of magic or the supernatural were added to the mix, and it was very rare for a talking animal not to be involved. He chose to disregard that because it wasn't an _always_, just a _usually_.

He figured that his story must be one for the record, since there didn't seem to be any like it in existence.

He'd only told it to one person—a good friend he'd made in North Carolina, a girl named Alice—when he was living with his aunt and uncle after everything went down.

They'd been sitting on an old bridge, talking everything over. His aunt had let him out because it was a "date" and Alice was a good Christian girl. Or so Aunt Evelyn thought. Alice was Christian, but she was also a lesbian and too scared to tell her parents. She'd cornered Micah at school and demanded they be each other's beards.

But on that bridge, she'd asked why he was there, in North Carolina. Micah had stumbled over words until she suggested he think it over and then tell it like a fairytale.

Finally, he did.

_Once upon a time_, he'd started, and she'd giggled but gestured for him to go on. _Once upon a time, there was a fairytale. No princess, no princes. But there was a dragon, and there was a lot of love. There were two princes, and they weren't alone. They had their royal court with them, in the land where they were cursed to exist, a land riddled with evil called Stanton. The five were cursed to not know each other, but somehow, they found themselves and each other. One of them was killed by the evil beings that roamed the land, but the remaining four kept strong._

_The two princes fell in love, but their love wasn't to last. An evil dragon discovered they were in love and set out to destroy their love. The older brother of the second prince took the fall for him, but the first prince was defenseless against the storm that the dragon brought._

_His family was furious and sent him far away, to a lonely castle where no one understood, except for the lovely Princess Alice. The prince was locked away in a cold stone tower, wating for his prince to rescue him, but knowing it was probably hopeless. He made friends with Princess Alice, but he knew it wouldn't ever be the same as with his own prince. So he sat, and he waited, but he knew he would probably die alone in his cold stone tower. The end._

Alice had been silent the whole time Micah told his story, and at the end she smiled.

_I don't think that's the end. Sounds like it's just beginning, really_. Her grin was infectious, just like Shane's had been, so long ago. _Don't give up._ And then she'd pushed him off the bridge into the deep river, diving off after him with a laugh.

And then there was the windfall in the form of running into Erin and Rebecca at that book fair on the school trip. Alice had shooed him off with a smile and a wink before "tripping" and tumbling into a display of books, creating enough of a diversion for the trio to sneak away.

And so here he was in the middle of Ohio, of all places, in this Valentine's Day fair where they've been running around in circles all day, just missing Blaine or Shane by a split second. His parents were going to kill him. Probably by defenestration or live burial. Possibly both.

But when he saw Shane again…oh, he was still very much in love with the curly haired dancer. But it seemed that someone else was too.

Reed. It fit with Shane's name—Shane-and-Reed, Reed-and-Shane. A potential for forever, just in their names.

From what he'd seen of Dalton so far, it seemed to be an inextricably tangled web or romance, broken hearts and underneath everything, a sense of belonging. So now, Micah had a choice to make—fight to make Shane see that he was the right one for forever, or back down and let Reed have the beautiful boy they both loved.

It was a hard decision—Shane would always have a special place in his heart, no matter what. He was the one who'd gotten him through the first few years at Stanton High. Shane was always going to be at the back of his mind—or at the front, if Micah fought and won. Together, they'd waged a war against society, and won too, because they'd formed the Fabulous Five and were happy, against all odds. There would always be a deeper level of understanding between Shane and Micah because of the Stanton experience, a sense of camaraderie Reed would never even begin to understand, let alone replicate. In a way, Shane was Micah's, and Erin's, and Blaine's and Jude's, in everything that mattered.

But.

It had been a year. A lot could—and did—change in a year. Shane had grown at least three inches and there was a scar on his forearm that hadn't been there before. Shane had nearly died, and that tended to change a person. As for Micah, he'd lost his parent's trust and been sent to a place where he didn't fit. Again. Shane had become more exuberant and extroverted—if that was even possible—while Micah had retreated deeper into himself as a form of self-preservation. Micah wasn't entirely sure they were the same people any more.

Well, shit. This was a dilemma. And it needed to be solved soon. Before his parents could figure out where he was.

But either way, he needed closure. Either Shane was Reed's, or he was Micah's. And Micah wasn't sure which side he was one.

This was going to be painful.

Micah groaned and rolled over to stare at the ceiling.

Why did this have to be so hard? If his story was a fairytale, he'd make sure no one had to go through the same thing. They'd have the fairytale to warn them of the dangers of letting your love slip through your fingers.

Maybe that was why fairytales were written. To warn people of the world's dangers. Don't trust strangers—Red Riding Hood. Don't break into houses—Goldilocks. Don't fall in love with the wrong people—The Little Mermaid. Inner beauty is better than outward beauty—Beauty and the Beast.

He was going to start writing his fairytale warning in the morning.

**R&R?**


	6. Back To December Derek

**Title: Fairytales and Rearview Mirrors**

**Summary: The times the Dalton Boys (and their counterparts) had issues with the concepts of fairytales.**

**A/N: The first six were on tumblr forever, and once I wrote the next seven, I figured what the hell and decided to throw them on ff. Every single one of them is based on Taylor Swift, so you can defenitely tell my Taylor Swift Ban isn't exactly working out.**

**Anyway, I don't own Taylor Swift or anything mentioned, not even the characters, 'cos I don't even have OCs in these. Enjoy!**

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><p>DEREK (Back to December)—474<p>

_"…So this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you saying, 'I'm sorry for that night,'…"_

Derek destroyed fairytales. Disney had never invented a hero like him, there was never anyone he related to in the classics Casey had jokingly suggested he read. (He never told her, but he'd checked a couple of them out from the library and read them just because she suggested it) Simply put, Derek was no Prince Charming or even the Big Bad Wolf—and he was sort of glad that was true.

Fairytales firmly divided on the black and white. Either you were good or you were bad. There wasn't a grey area, and for Derek, that simply wasn't acceptable.

Because in a Disney movie, he'd be cast as a villain, and for good reason. He hadn't loved Casey as much as she deserved, since he'd screwed up royally on her _birthday_, no less. But he wasn't cut and dried horrible—he didn't skin puppies and wear them as a coat, he didn't steal candy from babies, he played fairly and kept Julian and Logan from individually self destruction. He wasn't _bad_.

And his best friends, they were shades of grey too. Logan had anger issues and could throw someone through two inch thick oak walls, but he also would play dollies with little girls. Julian might be selfish and vain, but he was kind when he wanted to be and he could calm Logan with a muttered sentence. None of them had any place in a Disney movie, even though they weren't bad people.

And they'd all screwed up. Maybe Kurt would fall in love with Logan; maybe he wouldn't. Maybe Julian would grow a pair and tell Logan how he felt; maybe he wouldn't. Maybe Derek still had a chance with Casey; maybe he didn't. He'd messed up, but he still loved her.

He'd read enough fairytales to know that those who did wrong got what they deserved.

But then, what did he deserve?

On one hand, he'd cheated on his girlfriend.

On the other, he'd kept major secrets, kept Logan from suicide at least once and kept Julian grounded (to a relative degree. Julian's ego was so big, it would probably never entirely deflate). But that didn't exactly cancel out cheating, and he was pretty sure fairytales didn't have a set punishment for that.

Casey would know—Casey loved kids and babysat all the time and could recite four versions of Cinderella at the drop of a hat.

But she was also tough and wouldn't put up with his crap and that's why she was perfect for him.

Derek rolled over and groaned into his pillow.

He was never going to be able to give Casey the happy ending she deserved, was he?

Just another case of a Happily Ever After wrecked by Derek.

**R&R? I'll post the next set later. 3**


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